Zoo-keepers at the London Zoo have begun their annual count of EVERY animal in the zoo.
This doesn’t sound like too hard of a task until you consider all of the insects and fish they have to count!
Staff in the aquarium have to head-count more than 4,700 fish while bug keepers have to tally-up thousands of tiny insects.
Mark Tansley, a senior keeper in the bug department, said:
“It is a lot easier to count the larger mammals such as the gorillas or the lions but when it comes to invertebrate, they are a lot smaller and are more prolific breeders.”
We can only imagine (but it gives us the creeps when we think about touching all of those creepy-crawlers).
During the census, bug handlers have to estimate the size of ant colonies, count millipedes into tubs and carefully unearth creatures that live underground.
They may be small creatures, but that is no small task.
Last years inventory found there were more than 16,000 animals in the zoo made up of 726 different species.
[Image via AP Images.]
